124 First loud de sau3iarez, etc. 



paganda in 1809; an d as early as 1808 he had taken the same 

 attitude when he ordered Sir Samuel Hood, who was 

 stationed at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland to take care 

 that he did not frighten the commerce in his neighbourhood. 

 This attitude of Saumarez in 18 10 was unintentionally 

 assisted by Napoleon early in the next year. Furious with 

 the failure of his orders to close the Baltic to British trade 

 he decreed, in defiance of the treaty of Tilsit, the annexation 

 of Hamburg, Lubeck and the duchy of Oldenburg. This 

 last particularly irritated the Tsar, whose sister was 

 Duchess of Oldenburg. Napoleon, however, shortly after 

 gave further cause of irritation to Russia. In the Milan 

 decrees early in 181 1 he reinforced the famous Berlin decrees 

 and demanded that the Tsar should confiscate all goods in 

 Russian ports which came there even under a neutral flag. 

 The Tsar's reply was an Imperial Ukase which, while pro- 

 fessing to adjust the balance of trade in Russia, actually 

 facilitated the importation of certain goods so long as the 

 ships that entered his harbours did not fly the British flag. 

 The origin of the goods was not to be asked. 



This almost amounted to open defiance of Napoleon, and 

 both Russia and France began to make preparations for the 

 struggle. France seized Poland and Prussia. For Saumarez 

 it was an anxious year. Still nominally at war with Sweden 

 and Russia he had to exercise the most skilful diplomacy; as 

 precipitate or forceful action on his part might throw Russia, 

 into the arms of France, or bring about the struggle before 

 Russia was prepared. He could do nothing to accelerate 

 events and time was on the side of Napoleon. For the 

 British had to face an increasingly unfavourable exchange 

 in all the European countries which still traded with her. 

 The separation from Spain of the Spanish colonies led to 

 civil disturbance and the interruption of British trade. The 

 trade with America hardly existed. Saumarez could do 

 nothing but trust to the effects of his previous diplomacy, 

 and wait in hopes that the war would occur before the 

 collapse of British trade. Again Napoleon was within an 

 ace of success. 



Shortly after the arrival of the British fleet in 181 1, 

 Saumarez had an opportunity for the exercise of his 

 diplomacy. The Swedish admiral confiscated a quantity of 

 British merchandise in a Swedish harbour; and ordered 

 three new blockships to be fitted out for the defence of the 

 port. Saumarez refused to consider this an act of war and 

 continued to grant licences to Swedish ships. By a combi- 

 nation of firmness and diplomacy he eventually brought the 

 Swedish government to compensate for the loss of mer- 



